Rufus (I)

I. RUFUS, Son of Simon the Cyrenean, which Simon assisted our Saviour in carrying his Cross to Mount Calvary. Rufus probably was famous among the first Christians, since St. Mark names him with Distinction. Simonem Cyrenæum patrem Alexandri & Rufi. Is this the Rufus whom St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans Rom. xvi. 13.salutes with his Mother? St. Polycarp in his Letter to the Philippians, written in the Year 107, proposes to ‘em St. Ignatius, and one St. Rufus, as Models and Patterns of Patience. Usuard, Ado, and other antient Martyrologers, place St. Rufus the Martyr, on the 18th of December, and insinuate, that he was the Son of Simon the Cyrenean, since they say he was one of the antient Disciples, by whom the first Churches were founded among the Jews and Gentiles. The Chronicon of Lucius Dexter, a Work of no Credit, and contrived by an Impostor, speaks of St. Rufus Bishop of Tortosa in Catalonia, and honour’d upon the 11th of November, or rather the 14th, according to Ferrarius; and of St. Alexander his Brother, martyr’d at Cartagena on the 11th of March.

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